To refuse to buy bleach?

[Eastie77Returns]

First world problem alert.

Our cleaner has asked demanded that I add Domestos bleach to my cleaning products. There's been a bit of an ongoing issue for a while now as I have trialed various eco-friendly cleaning products over the last few months and she generally doesn't like them. I have changed a couple of times in the hope she will get on better with a new range but she has a preference for products that contain high levels of chemicals. I understand they are the go-too products that she trusts but I just don't want to use them.

At the moment she is begrudgingly using the Ecover products I most recently bought. Now she is insisting she needs bleach to clean properly because Ecover doesn't really cut it. I said no as I just can't have it in the house. The smell is one thing but it's so toxic and dangerous (I'm absolutely haunted by an acquaintance whose young child inhaled some). She is a really good cleaner and in high demand. I'm aware she's already given notice to two households on our street because they did not fall in line with her requests (not cleaning product related, something else).

Has anyone used any of the 'natural' bleach products currently out there and were they effective?

Absolutely.

It's nothing to do with being a "good cleaner" - but bleach is quite often the only thing which will clean toilets properly. I'm a cleaner so I'm speaking from experience, I don't use it for anything else.

Have you asked her what she uses it for? I'm a cleaner and personally I think the eco products are useless but if that's what they want, then so be it. I only use bleach for the loo because more often than not it's the only thing that will clean a toilet properly. She is right if she means the Ecover doesn't cut it where toilets are concerned. Maybe (I'm not referring to you) if people actually checked the toilet bowls were clean after use and not covered in crap, literally, then you wouldn't need to use the products necessary to clean them.

Toilets and sinks should be regularly bleached.

Says who?

And why bleach specifically and not another method?

I bought bleach the other day for the downstairs toilet. It was stained and no amount of scrubbing was making a difference!

However, I use eco products everywhere else and if my cleaner didn’t like them, im afraid I’d be getting a new cleaner.

my next door neighbour regularly bleaches her front door step… there’s a big wide range of cleaning product users!

Its toxic to the environment

Why?

they should be regularly cleaned but bleach? I can't use bleach as it triggers my asthma.

toilet and sinks perfectly clean

For what it’s worth, I’ve switched to Delphis for pretty much everything. Used to use Smok, then tried Purdy & Fig plus all the usual high street ones but Delphis wins hands down. I usually add a few drops of essential oil to the cleaners for that P&F experience 😊 I now buy the large refill size and keep it in the garage. Lasts for ages. The multi-surface cleaner really does everything but I was so impressed with I’ve now got the bathroom cleaner, floor gel, cream cleaner, polish and cream cleaner! Bung in some vetiver & bergamot oil and tie laughing.

Dianne help with tie cleaner though 🫣

So are essential oils 🤷‍♀️. Toxic to people too except when very dilute, and even then can be irritant or dangerous to pregnant women.

bleach is safer to have in the house and around children than undiluted essential oil, dishwasher tabs, laundry tabs etc.

I afraid that's not accurate. Some essential oils are so low in toxicity that they can actually be ingested in pretty large quantities. Others not so much.
Would you actually rather ingest bleach than, for example, a medicinal oil like black cumin, which is well known to be safe? A medicinal dose is often two tablespoons twice a day. Would you drink two tablespoons of bleach even once? I think not. Millions of people drink black cumin regularly with no ill effects. It's the go to herbal remedy for a lot of conditions in the middle east and north Africa. There are other essential oils like this, that's just one example.
I don't know your basis for saying bleach is safer than laundry and dishwashing products. Could you explain?

"I'm aware she's already given notice to two households on our street because they did not fall in line with her requests."

You have not told us what the "requests" were. "Don't allow your dogs to shit on the floor" would be an example of a reasonable request, but you have worded it in such a way as to make her sound unreasonable.

Based on this, I can only assume that she doesn't put up with much shit from employers (pun not intended) because good cleaners are in demand and hard to come by, so I guess you'll lose your cleaner then.

Common household bleach is relatively benign to the skin and GI tract; dilution is usually sufficient

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441921/

2 tbsps of bleach will taste disgusting and there’d be absolutely no point, but it wouldn’t cause anything other than irritation.

like you say, some essential oils may be harmless, others aren’t.

plenty of information out there. Too much for a mn post.

I'm a cleaner, I don't use bleach. It's absolutely not harder to clean without it, in fact it doesn't actually clean, it hides stains by, well, bleaching them!

Wasn't advocating essential oils but as you mention them, in use they are massively diluted anyway.. Assuming you're referring to eucalyptus oil as most are not at all toxic.

It's not possible to 'avoid chemicals'.
Your steamer uses water, which is a chemical.
You cloths are made of chemicals.
Your steamer is made of chemicals.
Your bathroom is made of chemicals.
You are made of chemicals.

Water is a chemical.

Lots of other posters are referring to 'not using chemicals' and lots of folk are promoting 'natural is better'
It's impossible not to use chemicals, because everything is made of chemicals, and natural isn't always better. 🫣

Washing up liquid is not made for the toilet and won't work us as well. It doesn't get my kitchen sink clean so no point trying it in the toilet where it doesn't belong anyway.

That seems pedantic. Why not concentrate on the gist of what I'm saying, which is that you can do a lot of cleaning without products.

It's not pedantic.

Can the pedants please get off the H20 bandwagon! We all know what is meant by 'chemicals' in this context - something which has varying degrees of effectiveness, and toxicity, depending on dilution

You can't just alter the definition of a word to suit your narrative though.
'Chemical free' or 'without the use of chemicals' are nonsensical terms, because everything is made from chemicals. Stop calling folk pedants for no reason.

Critical thinking training called for. I am not altering the word's meaning nor advocating for it. I am asking that pedants stop repeatedly telling us all what we already know, that water is a chemical, that we are composed of chemicals...then drawing a crooked line to ' any and all use of undilute bleach and other toxic cleaning chemicals' being equivalent.

You've attempted to change the meaning of a word by adding 'in this context'. That's not how it works. Feel free to ignore my posts if facts bother you.